Auburn's players met new head coach Gene Chizik for the first time Sunday night.

Well, most of them did. A handful of AU's rising seniors already knew Chizik from 2004 when he was recruiting them out of high school as Auburn's defensive coordinator.

"I'm kind of happy by seeing him come back," cornerback Walter McFadden. "He's the one who got me here. He's the one who gave me a comfort of coming to Auburn, with me being from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I didn't know anything about Auburn. He told me a lot.

"Just being around (former AU cornerback) Carlos Rogers when I was here on my recruiting visit, he just comforted me and told me all about coach Chizik and just gave me a lot of hype about it."

The hiring of Chizik Saturday ended an intense two weeks for the players that saw former head coach Tommy Tuberville "resign" and a 10-day search for his replacement that included a number of candidates, interviews, and rumors.